Book Review: Not the Slightest Chance: The Defence of Hong Kong 1941 (By Tony Banham)

This is a factual and blood-curdling slideshow of the eighteen days of horrifying fighting against the Japanese in Hong Kong in the not-too-distant past.

I belong to the post-50s group who were lucky enough to be born just after the war. While I was growing up, my mother and relatives belonging to her generation seldom talked about their war-time experiences. It was only recently that I heard about some traumatic personal stories told by a primary school teacher of mine, which ignited my interest in reading books about war-time Hong Kong. Reading "Not the Slightest Chance" had a bone-chilling effect on me, and it makes me want to read more on the subject.

In sum, it was a 60,000 (Japanese) against 14,000 (HK Garrison) combat, with the latter comprising soldiers of all nationality: the British Middlesex Regiment, the Royal Scots, the Punjabis (India), the Rajputs (India), the Royal Rifles of Canada (Quebec), the Winnipeg Grenadiers (Manitoba) and the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps. consisting of British, Chinese locals, Free French, Russians, Scandinavians and Americans.

The valiant men and women who sacrificed their lives (some suffering atrocious tortures in enemies' hands) either in action during the war or later in concentration camps in the defense of the Hong Kong population deserve our and our past generation's utmost and lasting respect and commemoration. The fact that the Hong Kong garrison (or at least the high-ranking officers) were well aware that Hong Kong was in an untenable position, but nonetheless resisted the Japanese invasion with dauntless courage, makes this part of Hong Kong's history especially poignant.

The book just makes me ponder as to why the Chinese Communists and Nationalists were conspicuously absent from the scene of the battleground. Hopefully other books about the 1941 battle that I’m going to read will shine a light.

Brief Synopsis of My Novel and BigLychee's Plug

Brief Synopsis of "Fated and Fateless":-

"The story is set in colonial Hong Kong and spans four decades from the late 1940s.

Prior to October 1987, Wendy has her fill of bad experiences in her childhood and youth until she meets Tony, a Macanese magnate, and becomes his protégé. Despite her ascending career, her romance with Edward, her childhood playmate and Diana’s kid brother, suffers constant sabotage by Diana, who is also Wendy’s archrival by design. Meanwhile, Diana breezes through life and covets the throne of her father’s (Mr. Lee’s) property empire, but her heiress dream proves elusive. Her bad choice of lovers causes her more than a fortune and the love of her life turns out to be her cruelest life lesson.

In October 1987, Wendy and Diana finally come to a face-off when Wendy and Tony act in concert trying to take over Mr. Lee’s company, which attempt is foiled by Diana on a tip-off from a snitch. This reduces Wendy to ruins. At the same time, Diana discovers a startling secret about her mother which could change her fortunes forever."

Hong Kong Blogger BigLychee (formerly Hemlock) mentioned this in his blog post of January 23, 2014:-

“Don’t be fooled by the girly cover. Set in the 1950s-80s era, it’s (judging by the first few chapters) a tale of good versus evil, in which the rags-to-riches heroine works her way up into a position where she might be able to turn one of Hong Kong’s notoriously greedy, cheating real-estate empires into a force for social good, only to come up against a property tycoon’s spoilt daughter, who apparently comes to some sort of sticky end – hopefully, vividly portrayed and extremely unpleasant. It’s sort of Land and the Ruling Class: the Movie. There is possibly a dash of autobiography, as per a first novel; there are also plentiful resemblances to actual people, living or dead, which are of course entirely coincidental. Strictly for hard-core fans of Hongkongiana, obviously, though if/when it appears in Chinese, it could strike a chord like its non-fiction predecessor.”

I'll be posting an excerpt of the novel soon! Keep an eye on this blog!

Paperback Edition of "Fated and Fateless"

With the help of free online tools available at the CreateSpace Independent Publishing platform (an Amazon company), I was able to create a paperback version of my novel, which has just been launched on Amazon.com (U.S.), Amazon.co.uk (U.K.), Amazon.fr (France), Amazon.de (Germany) and other Amazon European sites. Obviously, print-on-demand technology has been instrumental in helping debut fiction authors who are constantly crowded out of the market to get published at no cost.

In about six to eight weeks' time, the paperback version will be accessible by bookstores, online retailers, libraries and academic institutions.

Link to the Product Page on Amazon.com

Link to the Product Page on Amazon.co.uk

Link to the Product Page on Amazon.fr

Link to the Product Page on Amazon.de

I have to admit that I am one of those book readers who still prefer to hold a physical book in my hands and feel the pages while turning, rather than just gluing my eyes to a screen.

My Debut Novel "Fated and Fateless"

Having spent part of 2009 writing the first few chapters of my first novel, I had to put the work aside in 2010 and 2011 as I found myself deeply engaged in activities related to the publication of the Chinese editions of my non-fiction title "Land and the Ruling Class in Hong Kong". In  early 2012 I picked up the writing where I left off and finished the first draft in the summer. The remainder of the year was spent in re-writing and polishing the work.

Throughout 2013 I patiently tried to approach, one after another, a select few U.K. publishers who are still receptive towards unsolicited manuscripts from unknown fiction writers, at about three- to four-month intervals. For reasons I cannot fully explain, I had opted not to try U.S. publishers at all. I guess I should count myself as lucky to have received two polite rejection letters from two well-known U.K. publishers, one of who indicated that although my novel is well written and is generally up to publication standard, it is not deemed a viable proposition financially in these particularly difficult times for fiction.

Then the Kindle Self-Publishing website caught my eyes late last year. I decided to give it a go.

Now the Kindle edition of "Fated and Fateless" is available for sale on all branches of Amazon.

Link to the Product Detail page.


Link to the Author Page.


Any feedback from readers of my blog would be most welcome. Better still, buy my book, read it and write a review on Amazon!


 

Happy New Year!

To celebrate the first day in 2014, I've added a heart-warming love song "Speak Softly Love" to my list of uploads on Youtube. As Lord Tennyson once said: "It's better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all."

Here's the updated playlist "My Uploads":-

My Favorite Radio Program

I've just read a blog post on the Hong Kong Economic Journal Forum that laments the lack of good radio music  programs and the lack of professional DJs nowadays.  It is said that the newer generation of DJs tend to use the air time and platform like Hyde Park Speakers' Corner rather than share their passion for music with the audience.

Late last year I discovered a Radio HK music program (Radio 5, channel AM 783) that is currently broadcast every Sunday from 8:00 pm to 9:00 pm, and which has become my favorite radio program because I love the nostalgic English oldies that the program host selects. (Prior to June this year, the program used to be broadcast every Wednesday night when there was no LegCo Meeting, and there used to be both English and Chinese songs on the program.)

Here's the link to the program archive:-

http://programme.rthk.hk/channel/radio/programme.php?name=radio5/music_of_my_life&p=5275&m=archive&page=1&item=100

Have a pleasant trip down memory lane!

French Film Festival 2013 - Michael Kohlhaas

Last weekend I watched "Michael Kohlhaas", which is based on an 1811 novella written by German author Heinrich von Kleist about a true event that had taken place in 16th century Germany.

The story is about a horse dealer Michael Kohlhaas who, while passing a border, had two of his newly purchased horses unjustly taken from him as a road toll by an overbearing lord, at a time when road tolls had already been banned by law. Those two horses were worked mercilessly till they bled, and one of his loyal servants was also beaten up badly by the lord's men. When his attempts to seek justice through court proceedings repeatedly failed, his wife decided to take his case to the reigning princess but she was brutally murdered in the process at the behest of the powerful lord. Driven to blinding rage, Kohlhaas formed an army out of his servants, was forced to take his young daughter along for the ride, and attacked the castle of the lord, killing many of his men. The lord's escape into a convent did not stop him. He incited peasants to rise up in rebellion against the aristocracy. His action enraged the princess, who at first seemed forgiving and generous towards him, but who subsequently ordered his arrest and execution by beheading. To show him magnanimity, the princess ordered the judge to award him, before his execution, the justice that he had been seeking, that is, to return two healthy horses to him, to grant him compensation for bodily injuries that his servant had suffered and compensation for his own loss, and to sentence the culpable lord to two-year imprisonment.

Although the story is somewhat straightforward, the film is still quite enthralling with the gripping atmosphere created by skillful cinematography of the vast windswept and barren wilderness, accompanied by a somber sound design (with flies buzzing, wind howling and horse hoof thumping) that highlights the unforgiving countryside, plus the dark charm of the wronged hero role played by Mads Mikkelsen.

In the midst of Kohlhaas' acts of vengeance, there is a short dialogue between an old clergy and him in which the former tried to dissuade the latter from further committing acts of violence on account of faith in God, but failed, as the latter insisted on seeing justice done. The conversation has an unmistakable premonitory ring to it.

Few rational beings would risk their own lives unless they feel totally trapped with no way out. The tragic element of the story is that Kohlhaas' vindictive action resulted in creating even more victims (his own daughter being one as she was becoming an orphan), even if he finally got the justice that he had sought, for which ironically he had to pay with his own life. But then, in those days of the "ancien regime", when the royalties held all legislative, administrative and judiciary powers, what options did an aggrieved commoner have other than rise up and rebel?